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Sixth Tal Memorial in Moscow
This event is a ten-player round robin event, is taking place from November
16th to 25th in Moscow, Russia. Time control: 100 minutes
for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes
for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting
from move one. |
Results
Round 5: Sunday,
November 20, 2011 |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
½ ½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Vishy Anand |
½ ½ |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½ ½ |
Levon Aronian |
Boris Gelfand |
½ ½ |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
Sergey Karjakin |
½ ½ |
Peter Svidler |
Round five

US GM Hikaru Nakamura facing Levon Aronian (right World Champion Vishy Anand)

Levon, the world's number three player, ponders alone in a later phase of the
game
Nakamura-Aronian: Hikaru launched an immediate king-side expansion
in this increasingly popular variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. But,
as many times happens when you push too many pawns, a sacrifice designed to
evaporate the pawns and leave behind the weaknesses created by their advance
proved to be rather dangerous. Nakamura saw himself again with an extra exchange,
like he did against Svidler, but again he was faced with a powerful initiative.
His king felt unsafe and his position was overall unstable. Aronian saw himself
with the more pleasant game, but the American defended well and a timely return
of the exchange sealed the draw.

Fresh talent with a difficult name: GM Ian Nepomniachtchi
Addendum: Ebbe Frederiksen of Svendborg, Denmark, explains:
The name has nine russian letters, which gives nepom ja shj i j, where the
two groups stand for a single russian letter. If you want to pronounce it,
you have to know which is the stressed syllable. Here it is the second. So
written as it is pronounced the name becomes: NipOmjishjij, where the "j"s
are consonantal "i"s, the sound English gives as "y" or
"i" as the wind blows. And the "i"s are real as in kick.
As you see, not a single difficult sound anywhere. The only not English sound
is "shj", which is a long, palatal english "sh".
We stand corrected: very difficult name. Incidentally our Russian
expert Steve Giddins tells us to say "Ne-POM-nya-shy" and says it
means "not remembering". Giddins: "It goes back to Tsarist times,
when illiterate peasants wanted to stay off the radar screen, and when the censor
asked their name, they would claim they didn't remember. The exasperated censor
put them down as 'doesn't remember', hence Nepomniachtchi."
Gelfand-Nepomniachtchi: In what can only be described as another
Gruenfeld resurrection, the tournament saw this defense yet again. Despite playing
quite logically, Gelfand quickly found himself in an uncomfortable spot. When
Nepo successfully destroyed the center, the power of his bishops and better
coordinated pieces was apparent, even though some of his pieces hadn't left
their initial posts. Gelfand at some point sacrifices the exchange to quench
the initiative. This paid off as Black was left with threats that were easily
parried, and a weak king which provided lots of counterplay. The game was eventually
drawn when material ran low and White's queen was too much of an annoyance.

Israeli GM and 2012 World Championship challenger Boris Gelfand
Kramnik-Anand: It seems that there are repeating patterns.
Four wildly interesting games and one dull one is certainly not a bad ratio.
Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand were the ones responsible this time to provide
the game that was the least striking. Kramnik managed to almost equalize out
of the opening without too many difficulties. At some point Anand decided he
really didn't have anything, and instead of risking the pair of bishops slowly
growing into monsters, he traded pieces off and an opposite colored bishop endgame
arose, which was very obviously drawn.

Anand and Kramnik analyse after their game, with GM Maxim Dlugy in the middle
All games from this round – select from the dropdown menu on the
right above the JavaScript board.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.Rc1 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.e3 Rd8 9.Bd6 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Ne4 11.0-0 Nxd6 12.cxd6 Bxd6 13.Qb3 Nc6 14.Rfd1 Be7 15.Be2 h6 16.Nd2 Qb4 17.Qc2 Bd7 18.Nc4 Bf8 19.a3 Qe7 20.Nd6 Be8 21.Nxe8 Rxd1+ 22.Rxd1 Rxe8 23.Qb3 Rd8 24.Rxd8 Nxd8 25.Bf3 g6 26.Qa4 a6 27.g3 Bg7 28.Qc4 Qd7 29.Kg2 Be5 30.b4 Qc7 31.Qxc7 Bxc7 32.b5 axb5 33.Nxb5 Bb6 34.Nd6 Bc5 35.Nxb7 Nxb7 36.Bxb7 Bxa3 ½–½
- Start an analysis engine:
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Anand,V | 2811 | Kramnik,V | 2800 | ½–½ | 2011 | D37 | 6th Tal Memorial | 5 |
Nakamura,H | 2758 | Aronian,L | 2802 | ½–½ | 2011 | D31 | 6th Tal Memorial | 5 |
Ivanchuk,V | 2775 | Carlsen,M | 2826 | ½–½ | 2011 | D82 | 6th Tal Memorial | 5 |
Gelfand,B | 2744 | Nepomniachtchi,I | 2730 | ½–½ | 2011 | D80 | 6th Tal Memorial | 5 |
Karjakin,S | 2763 | Svidler,P | 2755 | ½–½ | 2011 | B42 | 6th Tal Memorial | 5 |
Please, wait...
Here are the two most exciting games of the round annotated by GM Alejandro
Ramírez.
Sergey Karjakin, former Ukrainian child prodigy (today Russian, grown up
and married)
On the move: Peter Svidler, super-grandmaster from St Petersburg

Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.0-0 e5 7.Bg5!? 7.Nf3 d6 7.Nb3 d6 8.Nc3 Be7 9.Be2 7...h6 7...d6 8.Nf5 Be6 9.Nc3 Nbd7 8.Bxf6 Qxf6 9.Nf5 g6 9...d5 10.Nc3! d4 11.Nd5 Qd8 12.Bc4 Nc6 13.f4 Na5?! 14.Qd3 10.Ne3 Bc5 11.Nc3 d6 12.Ncd5 Qd8 13.c3 Be6 14.Bc2 0-0 15.Ng4 15.Bb3 Nd7 16.Qf3 Rc8 17.Rad1 Kg7 18.Rd2 Qg5 15...Nd7!? 15...Kg7 16.Nxh6+ Kg7 17.Nf5+! 17.Ng4?! Qg5 18.Nge3 Rh8 17...gxf5 18.exf5 Bxd5 19.Qg4+ Kh6 20.Qh3+ Kg5 21.Qg3+ Kh5 22.Qg7! Bf3 23.Qh7+ Kg5 24.Qg7+ Kh5 25.Qh7+ Kg5 26.Qg7+ Kh5 ½–½
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Karjakin,S | 2763 | Svidler,P | 2755 | ½–½ | 2011 | B42 | Tal Memorial 2011 | 5 |
Ivanchuk,V | 2765 | Carlsen,M | 2826 | ½–½ | 2011 | D82 | Tal Memorial 2011 | 5 |
Please, wait...

Ivanchuk-Carlsen – do they have a cameraman dangling from the ceiling?

No, it's a remote controlled camera on a book, visible on the right of the
picture

The game nears it's end, and Magnus makes his stalemate draw offer (note
that
the embedded board in these pictures does not always match the current postion)

Ivanchuk captures the bishop and stalemates his smiling opponent
You can relive the entire round, or follow the next, in high definition in
this extraordinary broadcast
page provided by the Russian Chess Federation. All the pictures
above are screen grabs from this video. A note to the players: you can be seen
all over the world in full screen clarity. Refrain from bouncing around or picking
your nose, and do not attempt to swipe one of your opponent's pieces.
You will get caught!
Standings after five rounds

Remaining Playchess commentator schedule
Date |
Commentator |
21.11.2011 |
Free day |
22.11.2011 |
Daniel King |
23.11.2011 |
Robert Ris |
24.11.2011 |
Dejan Bojkov |
25.11.2011 |
Daniel King |
Schedule and Results
Round
1: Wednesday November 16, 2011 |
Levon Aronian |
½ ½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Vladimir Kramnik |
0-1 |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
1-0 |
Peter Svidler |
Vishy Anand |
½ ½ |
Sergey Karjakin |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½ ½ |
Boris Gelfand |
|
Round
2: Thursday, November 17, 2011 |
Magnus Carlsen |
1-0 |
Boris Gelfand |
Sergey Karjakin |
½ ½ |
Hikaru Nakamura |
Peter Svidler |
½ ½ |
Vishy Anand |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
½ ½ |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
Levon Aronian |
½ ½ |
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
Round
3: Friday, November 18, 2011 |
Vladimir Kramnik |
½ ½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
0-1 |
Levon Aronian |
Vishy Anand |
½ ½ |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
Hikaru Nakamura |
0-1 |
Peter Svidler |
Boris Gelfand |
0-1 |
Sergey Karjakin |
|
Round
4: Saturday, November 19, 2011 |
Magnus Carlsen |
½ ½ |
Sergey Karjakin |
Peter Svidler |
½ ½ |
Boris Gelfand |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
½ ½ |
Hikaru Nakamura |
Levon Aronian |
½ ½ |
Vishy Anand |
Vladimir Kramnik |
½ ½ |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
|
Round
5: Sunday, November 20, 2011 |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
½ ½ |
Magnus Carlsen |
Vishy Anand |
½ ½ |
Vladimir Kramnik |
Hikaru Nakamura |
½ ½ |
Levon Aronian |
Boris Gelfand |
½ ½ |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
Sergey Karjakin |
½ ½ |
Peter Svidler |
|
Round
6: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 |
Magnus Carlsen |
|
Peter Svidler |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
|
Sergey Karjakin |
Levon Aronian |
|
Boris Gelfand |
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
Hikaru Nakamura |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
|
Vishy Anand |
|
Round
7: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 |
Vishy Anand |
|
Magnus Carlsen |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Vassily Ivanchuk |
Boris Gelfand |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Sergey Karjakin |
|
Levon Aronian |
Peter Svidler |
|
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
|
Round
8: Thursday, November 24, 2011 |
Magnus Carlsen |
|
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
Levon Aronian |
|
Peter Svidler |
Vladimir Kramnik |
|
Sergey Karjakin |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
|
Boris Gelfand |
Vishy Anand |
|
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Round
9: Friday, November 25, 2011 |
Hikaru Nakamura |
|
Magnus Carlsen |
Boris Gelfand |
|
Vishy Anand |
Sergey Karjakin |
|
Vassily Ivanchuk |
Peter Svidler |
|
Vladimir Kramnik |
Ian Nepomniachtchi |
|
Levon Aronian |
|
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